(JNS) Some two months before the second anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, 17 countries and entities signed onto the “New York Declaration,” marking “a first condemnation by Arab nations of Hamas, whose attacks killed about 1,200, mainly Israeli civilians, and whose militants took about 250 people hostage,” the Associated Press reported.

The declaration received somewhat muted coverage hours after the United Kingdom made international headlines when it said it would recognize a Palestinian state in September if Israel didn’t take certain steps.

On the second day of a UN conference in New York about a two-state solution, the 17 denounced the Oct. 7 massacre and said that Hamas’s rule must come to an end in Gaza. They did so in the same paragraph that they denounced Israel.

“We condemn the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on Oct. 7. We also condemn the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure, siege and starvation, which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis,” the 17 said in the declaration. “There is no justification for breaches in grave violation of international law, including international humanitarian law, and we stressed the need for accountability.”

The declaration states that the war must end and Hamas must disarm and submit to the Palestinian Authority, which will run the Palestinian state. France and Saudi Arabia, the UN event co-chairs, signed the declaration, as did Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, Norway, Qatar, Senegal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the League of Arab States.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader who is in year 20 of his four-year term, penned a June 9 letter to Emmanuel Macron, the French president, in which he said that a Palestinian state would be demilitarized—a long-standing demand of Israel’s.

The 17 signatories of the declaration also welcomed the Palestinian leader’s “commitment to holding democratic and transparent general and presidential elections” within a year. Abbas has pledged several times during his tenure to hold elections but canceled them repeatedly, often blaming Israel.

The declaration also states that “Palestine” is to be lauded for its “efforts to modernize” its school curricula to fight “radicalization, incitement, dehumanization, violent extremism conducive to terrorism, discrimination and hate speech.” It “called on Israel to undertake a similar effort,” it said.

Washington designated the Palestine Liberation Organization as a terror group in 1987. Subsequent presidential waivers have allowed contact between the PLO and Washington, but the Trump administration shuttered the PLO mission in Washington. The declaration calls for all future participating Palestinian political parties to “respect the PLO political platform.”

In a separate joint statement, the foreign ministers of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia and Spain condemned “the heinous and antisemitic terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023.”

The ministers didn’t mention Hamas. They suggested that many of the 15 would recognize a Palestinian state in September. Ireland, Slovenia and Spain already did so last year, and Iceland did so in 2011. The Maltese prime minister said on Tuesday that Malta will also recognize a Palestinian state in September.

“While our hostages are languishing in Hamas terror tunnels in Gaza, these countries choose to engage in hollow statements instead of investing their efforts in their release,” stated Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

“This is hypocrisy and a waste of time that legitimizes terrorism and distances any chance of regional progress,” Danon said. “Those who truly want to make progress should start with an unequivocal demand for the immediate return of all the hostages and the disarmament of Hamas.”

‘To their eternal shame’

The president and CEO of B’nai B’rith International stated jointly that the UN conference “is an exercise in delusion.”

“The Palestinian Authority is a failure: unable to provide security, unwilling for decades to engage in serious negotiations, inciting rabid antisemitism in its schools and its media,” the leaders said. “Instead of understanding this truth, the UN conference supports the PA and deems it should be rewarded with the running of Gaza post-conflict.”

“The PA’s inept and corrupt control of Gaza was one of the underlying long-term causes of the war, as Hamas was easily able to violently push out the PA after Israel evacuated Israeli communities during the disengagement,” the B’nai B’rith leaders said. “Nor should any sane actor take seriously the vague commitments for reform made by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas in his letter to conference co-conveners.”

The B’nai B’rith leaders said that Abbas “has made similar commitments for years but never follows through” and that his letter condemning Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack came “almost two years too late.”

“The PA is not the answer for Gaza if the goal is stability and peace for Israelis and Palestinians,” they said. “That was not the true goal of this conference, however. The goal was to push more countries to abandon common sense and moral responsibility and unilaterally recognize a non-existent Palestinian state while Hamas continues to hold 50 hostages in tunnels underneath Gaza.”

Some states have said they will recognize a Palestinian state “to their eternal shame,” the leaders said. “Hamas has applauded this predictably reckless enterprise, which its participants may one day soon rue.”

Col. Richard Kemp, a former British Army officer and commander, stated that “notwithstanding its condemnation of Hamas, the only effect of the New York Declaration will be to harden Palestinian resolve against Israel and encourage Hamas to keep fighting.”

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